My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge
Paul Guest, . . Ecco, $23.95 (81pp) ISBN 978-0-06-168516-3
Paralyzed in a bicycle accident at age 12, Guest as an adult has turned his serious anger, his irrepressible energies and his sex drive into an instantly recognizable and passionate style. This third collection (his first from a New York trade house) comes with a blog and the promise of a memoir, which should raise the profile of these poems. On the one hand, the zigzag free verse portrays the poet's frustrations, “twenty-one years/ into the telling of a poor joke,/ made of pain, nerves snuffed like wicks”: “No music but smashed guitars/ would be enough.” On the other, the poems race, churn and tumble over themselves with a welcome, often R-rated, power of invention. Guest (
Reviewed on: 10/20/2008
Genre: Fiction
Open Ebook - 96 pages - 978-0-06-172228-8
Other - 96 pages - 978-0-06-172233-2
Paperback - 96 pages - 978-0-06-168519-4
Peanut Press/Palm Reader - 96 pages - 978-0-06-172231-8